Said the other to him: “When I look at you, you are extremely handsome.”
They were the ugliest beings in human form, but in reality were among the most magnificent of men, having power to take any form they chose.
Said the elder one: “Grandmother, you know how much talk there is about this maiden in the Village of the Yellow Rocks. We have decided to go and court her.”
“You miserable, dirty, ugly little wretches! The idea of your going to court this maiden when she has refused the finest young men in the land!”
“Well, we will go,” said he.
“I don’t want you to go,” replied she. “Your names will be in the mouths of everybody; you will be laughed and jeered at.”
“We will go,” said they. And, without paying the slightest attention to their grandmother, they made up their bundle—a very miserable bundle it was; the younger brother put in little rocks and sticks and bits of buckskins and all sorts of worthless things—and they started off.
“What are you carrying this bundle for?” asked Áhaiyúta, the elder brother.
“I am taking it as a present to the maiden,” said Mátsailéma, the younger one.
“She doesn’t want any such trash as that,” said the other. “They have taken very valuable presents to her before; we have nothing to take equal to what has been carried to her by others.”
They decided to throw the bundle away altogether, and started out with absolutely nothing but their bows and arrows.
As they proceeded they began to kill wood-rats, and continued until they had slaughtered a large number and had a long string of them held up by their tails.
“There!” exclaimed the younger brother. “There is a fine present for the girl.” They knew perfectly well how things were, and were looking out for the interests of their children in the villages round about.
“Oh, my younger brother!” said the elder. “These will not be acceptable to the girl at all; she would not have them in the house!”
“Oh, yes, she would,” said the younger; “we will take them along as a present to her.”
So they went on, and it was hardly noon when they arrived with their strings of rats at the white cliffs on the southern side of the canyon opposite the village where the maiden lived.
“Here, let us sit down in the shade of this cliff,” said the elder brother, “for it is not proper to go courting until evening.”
“Oh, no,” said the younger, “let us go along now. I am in a hurry! I am in a hurry!”
“You are a fool!” said the elder brother; “you should not think of going courting before evening. Stay here patiently.”
So they sat down in the shade of the cliff. But the younger kept jumping up and running out to see how the sun was all the afternoon, and he would go and smooth out his string of rats from time to time, and then go and look at the sun again. Finally, when the sun was almost set, he called out: “Now, come on!”
“Wait until it is wholly dark,” said the other. “You never did have any patience, sense, or dignity about you.”
“Why not go now?” asked the younger.
So they kept quarrelling, but the elder brother’s wish prevailed until it was nearly dark, when they went on.
The elder brother began to get very bashful as they approached the village. “I wonder which house it is,” said he.
“The one with the tallest ladder in front of it, of course,” said the other.
Then the elder brother said in a low voice: “Now, do behave yourself; be dignified.”
“All right!” replied the younger.
When they got to the ladder, the elder one said in a whisper: “I don’t want to go up here; I don’t want to go courting; let’s go back.”
“Go along up,” said the younger.
“Keep still; be quiet!” said the elder one; “be dignified!”
They went up the ladder very carefully, so that there was not a tinkle from the bells. The elder brother hesitated, while the younger one went on to the top, and over the edge of the house.
“Now!” cried he.
“Keep still!” whispered the other; and he gave the ladder a little shake as he went, and the bells tinkled at the top.
The people downstairs said: “Who in the world is coming now?”
When they were both on the roof, the elder brother said: “You go down first.”
“I will do nothing of the kind,” said the other, “you are the elder.”
The people downstairs called out: “Who comes there?”
“See what you have done, you simpleton!” said the elder brother. Then with a great deal of dignity he walked down the ladder. The younger one came tumbling down, carrying his string of rats.
“Throw it out, you fool; they don’t want rats!” said the elder one.
“Yes, they do,” replied the other. “The girl will want these; maybe she will marry us on account of them!”
The elder brother was terribly disturbed, but the other brought his rats in and laid them in the middle of the floor.
The father looked up, and said: “You come?”
“Yes,” answered the two odd ones.
“Sit down,” said the old man. So they sat down, and food was placed before them.
“It seems,” said the father, “that ye have met with luck today in hunting,” as he cast his eyes on the string of rats.
“Yes,” said the Two.
So the old priest went and got some prayer-meal, and, turning the faces of the rats toward the east, said a short prayer.
“What did I tell you?” said the younger brother; “they like the presents we have brought. Just see!”
Presently the old man said: “It is not customary for strangers to come to a house without something in mind.”
“Quite so,” said the younger brother.
“Yes, my father,” said the elder one; “we have come thinking of your daughter. We understand that she has been wooed by various young men, and it has occurred to us that they did not bring the right kind of presents.”
“So we brought these,” said the younger brother.
“It is well,” said
